Rush Limbaugh threatens, fails to leave Manhattan after tax tirade

Back in March, Rush Limbaugh got a lotofattention when he vowed to sell his New York City apartment and cease broadcasting from Manhattan, in response to a planned tax increase for wealthy New York State residents. "I'm going to get out of there totally, 'cause this is just absurd, and it's ridiculous," he fumed.

An empty threat? It's starting to look that way.
Four months to the day after his tirade, the conservative radio giant does not appear to have taken any steps towards making good on his promise. On his show in March, Limbaugh said he maintains a residence in New York City mainly so that he can broadcast from the studios of Premiere Radio Networks, his syndicator, when severe weather in his home state, Florida, threatens to interfere with his operations there. When doing so, he pays state income tax on a per-diem basis. He said he planned to "look for an alternative studio somewhere outside New York, perhaps Texas -- another no-income-tax state."

But with hurricane season starting up, Limbaugh has yet to make any such arrangements -- or, if he has, he's been keeping them from Kit Carson, his producer and "chief of staff." When I attempted to contact Limbaugh to ask him about his relocation plans, I was directed to Carson, who told me he'd forwarded my remarks to his boss, to no avail. "All I can tell you is, I put the question into him, and I got nothing back," Carson said.

Perhaps rather than scout studios, Limbaugh has been focusing on unloading his 4,000-square-foot penthouse condominium at 1049 Fifth Avenue?

Alas, a search of real-estate databases failed to turn it up. Carson had no comment on the condo, either, but a Manhattan real-estate broker assures me that it would almost certainly appear in the listings if it were indeed on the market.